Thursday, March 24, 2011

Fleeing Vesuvius, the US Edition

This hefty tome was published in Europe by Féasta, Ireland's
Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability. It contains two articles
by me: the first is a text version of the presentation I gave at the
Féasta conference in Dublin two summers ago, which you can read right on this blog.

The US edition will be released on April 5, 2011.
You can pre-order yours at a savings of $9.67. All the money will go to support Féasta.

My second article in this volume—Sailing craft for a post-collapse world—is
a long piece that I wrote exclusively for this publication. It spells
out the transportation options that will still exist once fossil fuels
are no longer available, concentrating on sail transport. It pulls
together pertinent information that is currently scattered across many
academic disciplines, and is also informed by my personal experience as
an ocean sailor and live-aboard who does all of his own maintenance.

Fleeing Vesuvius
draws together many of the ideas our members
have developed over the years and applies them to a single question—how
can we bring the world out of the mess in which it finds itself?
Fleeing Vesuvius confronts this mess squarely, analyzing
its many aspects: the looming scarcity of essential resources such as
fossil fuels—the lifeblood of the world economy; the financial crisis
in Ireland and elsewhere; the collapse of the housing bubble; the urgent
need for food security; and the enormous challenge of dealing with
climate change.

The solutions it puts forward involve changes to our economy and
financial system, but they go much further: this substantial,
wide-ranging book also looks at the changes needed in how we think, how
we use the land and how we relate to others, particularly those where we
live. While it doesn't discount the complexity of the problems we face, Fleeing Vesuvius
is practical and fundamentally optimistic. It will arm readers with the
confidence and knowledge they need to develop new, workable
alternatives to the old-style expanding economy and its supporting
systems. It's a book that can be read all the way through or used as a
resource to dip in and out of.

12 comments
:

I especially liked the new (to me) idea of Cap & Share, discussed several times throughout the book. Unlike Cap & Trade, Cap & Share removes control from corporations and gives it to the people -- where it belongs -- and the distribution is completely fair, as every person gets an equal share.

Most North Americans have never heard of Cap & Share because our mainstream media never mentions it. I'm sure the idea will get more support as more people learn about it.

I know of one person planning to taking up sailing soon. He's a peak oil and global warming denier, hates immigrants, ex-military (dishonorable discharge), a fan of Glenn Beck and hate radio and the Tea Party: basically a poster boy for why the USA is going down the toilet.

Yet he's aware enough that the state of the union is declining quickly, and plans on buying a sailboat this year to avoid any potential upcoming unrest in the country.

His plan? To take up piracy on the open seas. I wish I was kidding, and remain, of course, thoroughly disgusted.

Just so you know the insanity won't be limited to mainland Mad Max scenarios. Perhaps you know of a book on avoiding pirates and protection for the small sailor on the open seas?

Historically, pirates have had little success with those who shot back. I've been in the Service myself. It is very difficult to get a dishonorable discharge. I would suggest that your would be pirate's career will be quite short, and end very badly for him. Possibilities include, but are not limited to acute lead poisoning or a custom fitted hemp necktie...

A kindle doesn't need a lot of juice - a small $50 solar panel can charge it up in a day, resulting in a month of reading. It can store 1000's of books much easier than lugging said books around.Just because economy, society collapses doesn't mean we will lose our collective knowledge. I expect given the necessity people will develop new forms of electricity. Google "can water store charge?" (article in Langmuir) for one idea.

You might find interesting a report that was just on CNN about small numbers of older farmers moving back into the restricted zones around Chernobyl. One interviewed said that they felt it was safer than living where they were before because there the snow came down black instead of white (coal mining area?). Makes one wonder a bit about the produce at the farmes markets in Kiev.

"Ocean Arks: The Conceptualization of a Sailing Ship, the Margaret Mead" by John Todd What follows is a vision that is rapidly moving toward reality. The vision is of ocean arks, ecological "Hope" ships, great sailing vessels to ply the seas on behalf of the planet. Such ocean arks can bring together the farmer, the sailor, and the vagabond within us. In my view, they are needed for planetary as well aspsychological reasons. pp.46-55 The CoEvolution Quarterly Fall 1979